Following complaints by opposition candidates of rigging, the High Court in Malawi on has ordered a recount. The courts in the capital Lilongwe on Saturday, May 25, has ordered the Electoral Board not to announce presidential results until ballots from a third of the voting districts have been recounted.
Malawi’s electoral board which has to announce the final results of the May 21 vote within eight days of voting, suspended updating the tallies following 147 complaints raised by some of the opposition parties. The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of Lazarus Chakwera and other opposition candidate had registers complaints irregularities in results including result sheets altering from 10 of the country’s 28 districts at the High Court
The court on Saturday ordered that “the announcement of presidential results is stayed until the results … are verified through a transparent recounting of the ballot papers in the presence of representatives of political parties which contested the elections.”
Partial count of the votes show incumbent president Peter Mutharika leading by over 40%
